


Everything Feels Like the Movies

by yuhaholic



Series: Little Grave Lights [2]
Category: PRISTIN (Band)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Horror, takes place in 2002!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2019-10-20 14:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17623835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuhaholic/pseuds/yuhaholic
Summary: four years after they thought they defeated the monster that haunted their childhoods, something brings Yebin, Nayoung, and Yewon back to Little Grave Lights.++read the first installment of the series first please!!





	1. Four Years Later

**Author's Note:**

> this is nowhere near finished and it probably won't be finished for a while but I just wanted to get a few chapters up and see what y'all think!

Two years in California, and it’s like Yebin had never left. She didn’t even grow up here, her real home will always be in that dinky little town hidden away in the forests of Maine, but there’s something so familiar about the sweltering heat and the traffic and the lethargic way of life that makes Yebin feel like this is where she belongs. 

It hadn’t been easy for her to leave but she doesn’t regret it. California welcomed her back like a childhood friend. 

But even though she loves being back, she hates college. She misses her friends and her mom and it’s really hard for her to keep up with classes. For the most part, she doesn’t leave the general downtown Los Angeles area and she doesn’t leave campus unless she needs food or wants to see her grandparents. She doesn’t have that many friends but she’s never been one to have a lot of friends anyways. 

The one person that she’s really gotten close with is her roommate, a fiery boy named Seungkwan, who seems to be the exact opposite of her. Seungkwan is friends with basically everyone and their mother. He’s always out and about and it doesn’t seem like he ever studies, but he makes it through his classes without that much difficulty. He asks Yebin to go out with him almost everyday and Yebin always politely declines. 

It’s a warm Friday afternoon when Yebin finds herself lying in their bathtub because that’s where the AC works the best, staring at the air vent above her with blank eyes. The door slams open and she blinks herself back into reality. 

“Yebin, I just fell in love with a guy in my art history class,” Seungkwan says loudly. Yebin can hear him toss his backpack onto the couch. “Are you in the tub again?” 

“Yeah,” Yebin says tiredly and she is soon greeted by the post-workout beam of Boo Seungkwan. “Who’s the unlucky guy?” 

“First of all, fuck you, any boy would be thrilled to even know me,” Seungkwan scoffs. He leans against the doorway and crosses his arms. “And his name is Justin Summerville, he’s white and has blond hair and wears board shorts and has dreamy eyes. Do you know him?” 

Yebin thinks for a bit but comes up empty. “Uh. I don’t think so?” 

“Damn.” Seungkwan sighs dejectedly. “Well, I’m going to H-Mart with some friends. Do you want to come?” 

“Nah, I’m good,” Yebin says. “I have to -”

“Study,” Seungkwan finishes for her because they've done this a million times now. “Yeah. You know, I’ve never actually seen you open a text book. All you do is sleep and stare at that picture of Roa Kim for hours.”

“Yeah.” Yebin raises her eyebrows. “Studying.” 

“I don’t understand you how can pass your classes like this,” Seungkwan says flatly. 

Yebin shrugs. “I test well and fuck my professors.”

Seungkwan seems to think that that’s a pretty good answer and nods. “Okay. I’ll probably be back in a couple hours. Want me to bring something back for you?”

“Actually if they have any of those mango jelly cups that would be great,” Yebin requests. “One of those huge containers?”

“Sure thing, homie. See you later.” 

“Yeah, see you.” 

The door opens and closes a minute later and Yebin closes her eyes. It’s been just about four years since she found Roa Kim’s missing person poster. She first saw it during her junior year of high school and it’s remained a mystery since then. She’s spent everyday trying to figure out why it means so much to her but nothing has come from it. 

When she first found it, she thought everything would happen right away. She’d find Roa Kim, they’d figure out what the hell she’s all about, and it would be case closed, mystery solved. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. 

Yebin gets out of the tub and goes to her room. It’s a little messy and her bed is never fully made, but it’s not a total pigsty. Her mother would be proud to know that she actually puts her dirty clothing in a basket rather than throwing them on the floor. There are pictures of her family taped on her walls and a framed photo of her and her high school friends on her night stand and a myriad of little supplies and trinkets lying on her desk. 

The missing person poster hangs on the wall there, yellowed with age and soft on the edges. Next to it is a faded receipt from the Grave Digger, with the name Kim Minkyung scrawled along the bottom in loopy script. 

It’s the girl that she hasn’t stopped thinking about for years. The girl she sees in her dreams. Roa Kim. 

Ever since Yebin was little, she had to have someone looking after her. Her mother always made sure that she had the medication she needed and that whoever she was with knew exactly what to do if something happened. She spent half of her life living in fear that she might die the next day. 

But when she’s asleep, when she’s dreaming of Roa Kim, she doesn’t feel broken. She doesn’t feel incomplete. She feels healthy and she feels happy and she feels perfect until she wakes up and it’s all gone. 

Being with Roa Kim in her dreams makes her feel like she can do anything. 

She dreams of Roa Kim, of sparkling eyes and pale skin and soft lips, she dreams of a voice so beautiful and musical that it could stop the world from ending. 

She dreams of a forest that comes to life, lying on the damp ground, and Roa Kim looking down at her like she’s holding the most precious thing in the world. 

She dreams of a past she can’t remember. 

 

“Mine!” 

Nayoung dives and barely catches the volleyball with her forearms, sending it back into the air. 

She watches as her teammates setup the perfect spike and the ball slams onto the ground on the other side of the net. 

Eventually, their coach calls for practice to end and she follows her team to the locker room. 

College volleyball is a million times harder than high school volleyball but that had been expected. She’s always tired and sore and she can hardly keep her grades up on top of that. It’s like she never has time for anything other than school and volleyball, but that’s all she really needs time for anyways. 

Nayoung pulls her shirt over her head and tosses it into her bag. 

The girl next to her rests her head on the cold metal locker and sighs. “You got anyone coming for family weekend?” 

“No.” Nayoung’s parents died before she could even remember them and she doesn’t have any relatives in America since her uncle passed away two years ago. When she left Little Grave Lights, there was nothing for her to come back to. There was no reason for her to ever look back. “What about you?” 

“My parents and my little sister,” her teammate replies. “They’re flying in tomorrow morning.” 

Nayoung finishes changing and engulfs herself in deodorant. “Sounds fun.” 

Her teammate snorts. “It won’t be.” 

“They’re your family. Try to enjoy it,” Nayoung says. She closes her locker and pulls her bag over her shoulder. “I’ll see you on Monday.” 

“Counting on how crazy Coach is, it’ll probably be Sunday,” the girl behind them chimes in. 

Nayoung groans and slips on her sandals. “He better buy us lunch next week or I’m quitting.” 

“We should go on strike,” the girl next to her says. “We won’t play until he agrees to give us some god damn rest.” 

Nayoung laughs and gives her a high five. “I’m heading out. Good luck with your family. Bye, Gianna.” 

“See you, Nayoung!” 

As soon as Nayoung steps out of the gym, there are flip flops slapping on the sidewalk next to her. 

“Hey, do you think you could get me an in to the girls locker room sometime? I mean you get to look at all these hot, sweaty girls all day long and you don’t even have time to think about it. I would really enjoy it, and a real friend would know that.” 

Nayoung takes a deep breath. “No, Kyulkyung.” 

“Oh, come on,” Kyulkyung continues. “There’s no need to get jealous. You know that you’re the only hot, sweaty girl that I want to look at all day long.” 

“I’m not jealous, Kyulkyung,” Nayoung says. 

“Come on, Nayoung, when are you going to let me take you out?” 

“Never, Kyulkyung.” 

This has been happening for over two months now. Kyulkyung waits for Nayoung outside the gym and walks her back to her dorm and tries to swindle her way into a date everyday. At first, Nayoung really just didn’t have time for it. She was having trouble balancing volleyball and school and she couldn’t be bothered to fit a love life into her schedule. Things slowed down after a while and she started having more free time but at that point she was so used to saying no that it just became routine. 

And she likes it. It’s nice to have a constant in her life that she can really rely on, and Kyulkyung isn’t an asshole. If Nayoung really didn’t like her, she would have given up already. They’ve kind of actually become good friends. Kyulkyung is the first person that Nayoung has really enjoyed spending time with in years and she’s nice and funny and she makes her feel good about herself.

“You should come to my recital,” Kyulkyung says suddenly. Nayoung barely turns to look at her and raises her eyebrows. “It’s a summer showcase and it’s really hard to get on the set list and, I don’t know, I’m really proud of myself and you said you’ve never heard someone play the pipa before so I thought maybe you’d want to come.” 

Nayoung tries to keep from smiling as she watches Kyulkyung nervously kick at the snow. “When is it?” 

Kyulkyung’s eyes light up and she looks up at Nayoung with a huge stupid grin on her face. “Did you just agree to go out with me?” 

“That depends on when it is,” Nayoung says slowly. 

“It’s on the fifteenth,” Kyulkyung tells her. “Of June.” 

“Alright,” Nayoung says, coming to a stop at the door of her building. “I’ll think about it.” 

Kyulkyung looks like she’s about to explode. “Okay! Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow!” 

Nayoung stands at the door for a bit to watch Kyulkyung nearly trip on the sidewalk and dash down to the quad. She feels a gust of wind and brings her hand up to tug on the brightly colored sleeve of her windbreaker. 

She’s quickly losing a time she promised she would never forget. 

 

The letters are stacking up. Yewon refuses to touch any that have Little Grave Lights in the return address. It’s petty and dumb and she knows she shouldn’t but every time she thinks about Little Grave Lights, she feels something ugly boil in her gut and she hates feeling that. 

Little Grave Lights has a forest, a diner, a library, and all the things that she loves. Little Grave Lights also has a high rate of children going missing, freezing cold winters, community members who turn a blind eye to everything that goes wrong, and all the things that she wishes she could forget. 

Little Grave Lights has her parents. Little Grave Lights has what she hates. 

Her parents treated her like garbage. They told her that she would never amount to anything and that she’s worthless, and they convinced her that she needed them because no one else will love her. She was terrified of them but she was completely dependent on them too. Her friends told her so many times that she needed to get out of there but she refused. She believed them, she thought that they were the only ones who would ever be able to take care of her. 

She knows now that that's not true. 

She'll admit that she was scared when she first moved to Texas. The American South in general sort of made her wary so she was surprised to find that she really likes Austin. It's lively and fun and the people she’s dealt with so far have been amicable at the least. 

She’s lucky that her boyfriend is also from a small town and they got used to Austin together. Chan grew up in some town she can’t remember the name of in Washington. They met during their first year when he accidentally slammed her in the face with a door as he was leaving the class that she had next. They became friends quickly and suddenly she had someone. Someone to talk to, someone to hold, someone trust, someone to love. The last time she felt like this about someone was when she lived in Little Grave Lights. 

So when she grabs her mail, she goes through, pulls out the envelope from Little Grave Lights, and throws it into her Little Grave Lights Letters Basket. 

And then she notices the return address. It's not from her parents. 

The name Kyungwon Kang isn’t one that she’s thought about in years. 

Feeling like she’s walking through mud, Yewon finds the letter opener and rips the envelope open. The handwriting is smooth and loopy, and easy to read. 

There’s no hook, no opener. There’s no ‘I hope this finds you in good health’ or ‘I hope you’ve been doing well.’ The first line is enough to keep her interested. 

_ I need your help. _

It’s a little scary. She recognizes the handwriting from the times she read it off of notes passed in the middle of class. It’s not handwriting that she’s seen in years. 

And then she remembers Roa Kim. She remembers the nights she stayed up late with Yebin, going over newspaper clippings and searching through the library archives, and she remembers the signature on a Grave Digger receipt that Yebin still has in a box somewhere. 

Little Grave Lights has Roa Kim. Little Grave Lights won’t let her go. 

She’s running from a past that she can’t escape.

 

Nayoung feels stupid standing at the stage door holding a small bouquet of flowers until she sees Kyulkyung walking out with the brightest smile she has ever seen. 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you brought me flowers!” Kyulkyung says giddily. She accepts them with shaky hands. “They’re so beautiful. Thank you, Nayoung.” 

“You were wonderful,” Nayoung says and Kyulkyung blushes. “I’m really proud of you.” 

“Shut up,” Kyulkyung mumbles, but she’s still smiling. 

“So,” Nayoung says, leaning back on her heels. “When are you gonna let me take you out?” 

It either takes a long time for Kyulkyung’s smile to widen or time legitimately slows down, and Nayoung thinks that she would do anything it takes to keep that smile on her face. 

“Whenever you’re ready, Nayoung,” Kyulkyung replies. 

They end up going to the Carl’s Jr. on campus. Nayoung knows it’s not much but Kyulkyung doesn’t seem to mind. They could have gone to a gas station and Kyulkyung wouldn’t mind. 

They talk about everything and nothing while eating the seven orders of large french fries they had decided to get. Kyulkyung tells Nayoung all about rehearsals and the audition process and the gossip about the other performers. Nayoung tells Kyulkyung about her crazy volleyball coach and that time they had a practice at four in the morning. 

Nayoung is happy. She’s really happy and it’s sort of weird being this carefree. She doesn’t think she’s felt this light since high school. 

“I watched a documentary about China in class the other day,” Kyulkyung is saying. She stirs her milkshake with her straw. “I grew up there but, like, wow, there is a lot I did not know. Did you know that there’s this fishing method where they use birds? They tie strings around their necks so they can’t swallow the fish that they catch.”

“That’s wild,” Nayoung replies. “That’s ancient or they still use that method?” 

“Only in, like, small villages in the south,” Kyulkyung says. “I’m actually going back to Taizhou in a couple days for summer.” 

Nayoung slowly finishes the french fry she has in her mouth. “That sounds fun. How long is the flight?” 

“Seventeen hours from Pittsburgh to Shanghai,” Kyulkyung says. She sighs and slides down in her seat. “Jet lag is going to be a bitch to get over. You got any summer plans?” 

“Uh, not really,” Nayoung admits. “I got a call from a friend in Maine so I might go up there to visit, maybe make a road trip out of it.” 

Kyulkyung suddenly sits up straight. “You have a friend in Maine?” 

“Yeah.” Nayoung frowns. “I never told you I moved here from Maine?” 

“I thought you were from New York,” Kyulkyung says. She raises her eyebrows. “So you’ve been lying to me for two years.” 

Nayoung rolls her eyes. “I lived in New York for most of my life and moved to Maine for the last two years of high school. It was a crazy small town in the middle of the forest, totally Stephen King esque.” 

“Ooh, very cool,” Kyulkyung says. “Take some pictures so you can show me what it’s like to be a mountain person.” 

Nayoung’s phone starts ringing before she can respond and she gives Kyulkyung an apology before stepping out of the booth. 

“Hello?” she asks, flipping the phone open. 

“Nayoung? This is Kyungwon’s mother,” a soft voice carries through the line. “Do you know where she is?” 

 

Little Grave Lights is different. 

Yewon’s taxi drops her and Chan off at Lightbreak Bridge like she asked. It’s definitely not as hot as Texas, which is great, since now she can wear a light jacket without drenching it with sweat. When she told Chan that she had to go back to Maine, he insisted on going with her and, if she’s being honest, she’s glad he’s here. 

There used to be a gas station at the edge of town. Now, there’s a collection of restaurants and a tall office building. They walk past a new apartment complex and a doctor’s office. The library is still there, with its park and gazebo. Brewport is across the street, now with outdoor seating and heaters. They follow Main Street past the CD store and the pharmacy and the Grave Digger and end up in front of Lightbreak Inn. Little Grave Lights is different but it’s the same. Yewon thinks that in some ways, it will always be the same. 

“This town,” Chan says, “is so cute.” 

Yewon shrugs. “Yeah, I guess. It definitely isn’t Austin, that’s for sure.” 

They go into the lobby and Chan takes a moment to take in the room. 

“This is interesting,” he says. 

“It’s straight up creepy, I know,” Yewon says. “But it’s the only hotel in town and it’s actually not that bad.”

They check in and after Yewon has an awkward conversation with the concierge about how she’s been since she moved to Texas, they go to their room. 

Chan puts his suitcase down and then sits on the bed. “So, what’s the plan? Are we going to meet up with your friends or something?”

“Not yet,” Yewon says, sitting down next to him. “I just want to have you to myself for a little bit.”

“You’ve had me to yourself for the past year and a half,” Chan points out, but he doesn’t push her away when she wraps her arms around his shoulders. “I’m kind of interested in learning about what your life was like before Texas. I know virtually nothing.”

“There’s nothing you need to know,” Yewon replies. “None of it is important.”

“Babe, I get that it wasn’t good. My childhood wasn’t the best either,” Chan says. “But you have to talk about it and right now seems like a really good time to talk about it.”

Yewon sighs and detaches herself from him. “Fine. But don’t make this one of your psychoanalyzing things, I hate it when you do that.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Chan assures her. “I’m just here to be your boyfriend.”

“My parents didn’t like me very much,” Yewon starts. “I think because my dad always wanted a son. I only had three friends and, in sophomore year of high school, someone started a rumor that I was sleeping with one of the teachers and that was the reason that he quit and left Maine. My friend Yebin was allergic to tons of things and had lots of illnesses growing up and she moved to California as soon as we graduated high school. Nayoung was only here for like two years before she went down to Pennsylvania on a volleyball scholarship. Kyungwon was the only one of us who stayed here but she went missing a week ago.”

Chan stares at her silently for a while. “Okay. Alright, so the parents thing? I totally get that. I’ve got a tough relationship with my parents as well. I don’t really know what to say about anything else that you just told me. You said that your life in Maine was boring.”

“It was boring, it’s still boring. My life in Texas is boring,” Yewon says. “Chan, you make us have pasta every Tuesday and you call it pasta night.”

“That’s not boring, that’s super cute,” Chan says. “We love pasta night.”

Yewon grins and presses a quick kiss against his lips. “Yeah. We do.”

 

“Uh, Yebin? I got someone on the phone for you,” Seungkwan calls from the front room. Yebin doesn’t respond so he pokes his head into her room. “It’s one of your girls from Maine, it sounds pretty urgent.” 

Yebin blinks owlishly at him. “I don’t have any girls in Maine.” 

“Well, I’ve got a girl from Maine on the phone who says she needs to talk to you, so I don’t really know what you expect me to do,” Seungkwan tells her. “Look, just get out here, okay? I can never say no to a nice girl.” 

Yebin sighs and follows Seungkwan into the front room. She takes the phone from the counter and holds it up to her ear. “Hello?”

“Hey, Yebin,” Nayoung says and Yebin nearly drops the phone. “You need to come back to Maine. Right now.”

“Excuse me?” Yebin asks, almost angrily. “I don’t recall you having any right to tell me what to do.”

Nayoung takes a moment to respond. “I don’t want to have to tell you this over the phone, I think it’s best if you come back to Maine.”

“I can’t just come back to Maine,” Yebin states. “What are you doing back there anyways? I thought you moved to Pennsylvania.”

“Yeah, I did, I’m just - I had to come back because something happened,” Nayoung tries to explain. “I really think that this is something we need to talk about in person.”

Yebin drums her fingers on the counter. “Okay, fuck you if you think that I’m going to drop everything and go back to Maine just because you’re too much of a pussy to say whatever it is you want to say over the phone. I actually have a life here, and it’s been going real great, so whatever this is, it can wait.” 

“Kyungwon is missing, Yebin.” 

Kyungwon Kang, the tall, stupid, beautiful girl who had welcomed Yebin to Little Grave Lights without hesitation. 

The girl who dared her to drink from a puddle when they were eleven years old, the girl who broke her arm by falling out of a tree when they were thirteen years old, the girl who never let anyone make fun of Yebin without getting a punch in the face, the girl who made it onto the varsity volleyball team in sophomore year. 

“Yebin, please,” Nayoung says and her voice is shaking. “I need you to come back. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Okay,” Yebin says. “I’m coming.”

  
  



	2. The Gang's All Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really missed these girls so much

Yebin drags her feet along the dirt trail, squinting up at the trees in front of her. Going on a memorial hike in honor of Kyungwon’s disappearance wasn’t her idea, nor did she want to do it, but then again, Nayoung could probably get her to do anything. Yewon and her boyfriend, Chan, are a couple yards behind her, chatting amiably. Yebin took an immediate disliking to Chan, purely because she thinks that no one is good enough for Yewon, but he’s actually very kind and fun to talk to and they get along really well and she can’t find a legitimate reason to not like him. 

It’s different without Kyungwon. It’s terrible. They didn’t really go hiking that much when she was still around. Hiking was something that young families or old people did on mornings in the weekend, or tourists during the summer. There’s a hiking club at the high school, at least there was one when they were there. Kyungwon actually quite disliked hiking, so this whole “memorial hike” thing doesn’t make the most sense, but Yebin supposes that it’s nice to be in the nature for a bit. 

Kyungwon was not particularly smart, nor was she a their ‘leader’ in any way, so she didn’t exactly offer any assistance at any point in time, but she did say weird things and fall off of her bike a lot, which made her very endearing. And now she’s gone. 

“I can hear you thinking, it’s hurting my head,” Nayoung tells her. She’s a couple steps ahead. “Stop that.” 

“Oh, yeah, sure, I’ll just stop using my brain,” Yebin retorts. 

“You’ve never used it before anyways,” Nayoung points out. 

Yebin’s eyes widen and she gasps. “Okay, totally uncalled for! Also, I’ll have you know that I have never gotten below a B in any of my classes, ever.” 

“School isn’t really about using your brain, you just have to memorize shit,” Nayoung says. 

“And exactly which organ do you think I’m using to memorize that shit?” Yebin asks. “My small intestine?” 

“Jeez, you guys, it’s ten in the morning, can you give it a break?” Yewon complains. 

“Sorry, sunshine, being the most annoying people in the world is kind of our brand,” Yebin says. 

“Do not lump me in with you,” Nayoung says. 

“Okay, quiet game, starting now!” Yewon announces. Yebin and Nayoung both shut up but they continue to glare at each other. Yewon leans over to Chan. “I give them five minutes.” 

“What is their deal, why are they like this?” Chan asks quietly. 

Yewon shrugs. “They just clash. It’s been like this since they first met. I don’t really know why, but Yebin clashes with a lot of people.” 

“How much longer is this hike?” Yebin asks, falling in step beside Nayoung. 

Nayoung looks at her amusedly. “Ha. I won the quiet game.” 

“Shut the fuck up,” Yebin snaps. She whacks Nayoung limply. “How much longer is this hike?” 

“I don’t know,” Nayoung sighs. “Like an hour and a half left? I think it’s like another half hour to get to the view point and then we loop back around to get back to the park.” 

“Jesus fucking christ,” Yebin groans and she pulls her inhaler out of her fanny pack. “Can we just turn around now?” 

“You can, if you’re willing to admit that you’re a quitter,” Nayoung says as Yebin takes a puff of her inhaler. “By the way, I’m not too impressed by the fanny pack. I liked the backpack better.” 

“Backpacks hurt my back, I already have arthritis,” Yebin says. “Plus, they make me hunch over.” 

“You think you’re gonna get any shorter than this?” Nayoung scoffs. She holds her hand above Yebin’s head. “You’re already basically Sneezy from  _ Snow White. _ ”

“I am literally going to kill you, I am going to push you off of this trail and you are going to fall to your death,” Yebin threatens. 

“Oh no, please, don’t,” Nayoung deadpans, rolling her eyes. Yebin glares at her. “You know, for a while, I really thought that I missed you, but now, I realize that being away from you was literal paradise.”

“Okay, um, first of all, how dare you,” Yebin says. “Second, you should feel honored to know me, I am an absolute delight, I’m probably your best friend.”

Nayoung raises her eyebrows. “Bold of you to assume that we’re even friends.”

“I’m sorry, who was the one that called me, literally crying, begging me to come back here because you had no idea what to do?” Yebin says. 

“I wasn’t crying and I wasn’t begging,” Nayoung states. 

“Guys, what did I say about the quiet game?” Yewon yells at them. “Shut up!” 

Yebin is about to yell back at her when she trips on the uneven dirt and nearly face plants, but Nayoung grabs her arm before she can fall. 

“Christ, what was that?” Nayoung asks. 

“A damn ass, bitch ass, gay ass rock, that’s what that was,” Yebin mutters, brushing her clothes off. She yanks her arm out of Nayoung’s grip. “I didn’t need you to catch me.”

Nayoung sighs. “Whatever, man.”

“Uh, guys?” Chan pipes up. He kneels down beside Yebin’s feet and uncovers a metallic sign half buried in the dirt. He manages to unlodge it from the ground and turns it around to see the words ‘KEEP OUT’ in big letters. “Are you sure we can be on this trail?”

“Yeah, this is the most popular trail for tourists. I don’t know what that sign is for,” Yewon says. She looks at Yebin. “Have you ever seen it before?”

Yebin squats next to Chan and squints at the sign. “Honestly, I’ve seen tons of signs just like this and I ignored exactly all of them. I don’t know how or why it’s here, the whole forest is basically open to anyone.”

“Okay, well, there’s a house right there, so maybe it’s for that,” Nayoung suggests. Yebin and Chan stand up to see where she’s pointing. They can just barely make out a black, molding roof behind a group of trees. 

“We have to go check it out,” Yebin says immediately, looking at her friends with bright eyes. Yewon shakes her head silently and Nayoung gives her a discouraging look. “Come on, don’t tell me that college made both of you boring asses.”

“I am not boring,” Yewon protests. Chan sort of snorts and she looks at him like he just stabbed her in the back. “I’m not!”

Yebin looks at the two of them. “Okay, whatever, I’m going to just go look at the house. Let’s go, Nayoung.”

“I’m not following you.”

“Yes, you are.”

Yebin skids off of the trail and onto the leaf littered ground, engulfing herself in the trees. She doesn’t have to look back to know that Nayoung is behind her, and Yewon and Chan aren’t far behind. They’re quick to find the house and the four of them stand in front of it in silence, taking it in. The wood its built of is rotting and it seems like its being eaten by vines. It’s big enough for maybe two or three rooms and there’s a single door. 

“Well, I am terrified,” Yebin admits. She looks at her friends. “How are you feeling about this?”

“Not so great,” Nayoung replies. 

“I am getting mad _ Blair Witch Project _ vibes from this place,” Chan adds on. 

Yebin smacks his arm. “Shit, man, you think there are witches in the woods?”

“There are witches everywhere,” Chan assures her. 

“Guys, stop it,” Yewon says. “Should we go in?”

“I don’t really want to go in, but it kind of feels like we have to,” Nayoung says. “Like, if we don’t, I’m never going to be able to stop thinking about it, like Schrodinger’s cat or whatever.”

“Schrodinger’s moldy ass mountain cottage,” Yebin says. 

A window pane slams open and all four of them scream. Yewon hides behind Chan, who holds his arm up as if it’s supposed to protect them, and Nayoung pushes Yebin back. 

There’s a girl standing in the window. She has pale skin, long dark hair, and long legs. She’s wearing a leather jacket and she’s staring at them with a sort of annoyance like she’s trying to be mad but she doesn’t quite have the energy. 

It’s the girl that Yebin has been dreaming about for years. 

It’s Roa Kim. 

“What are you guys doing?” she asks before anyone else could get a word in. 

Yebin grabs Nayoung’s arm and starts shaking it. “Oh my god, I’m losing my shit right now, what do we do?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Nayoung says, moving closer to Yebin. “I don’t know, I don’t know.”

“Do we know her?” Chan whispers to them. 

“We kind of do, but not really, I don’t really know what’s going on right now,” Yewon tells him. She leans over to Yebin. “What is going on right now?”

“Why do you think I know?” Yebin hisses. 

The girl clears her throat to grab their attention again and Yewon lets out a squeak. “Hello? Why are you all just standing there?” 

“Do you know who we are?” Yebin asks carefully. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the girl says flatly. She stares at them tiredly. “You really don’t remember?”

Yebin looks at Nayoung and Yewon. “What is she talking about?”

“Oh my god.” The girl disappears from the window and then the door swings open. “Get in here.”

“Nah, we are not going in there,” Chan states. He leans back so only the girls can hear him. “First rule of street smarts: never let them take you to a secondary location.”

“That’s not a secondary location, it’s literally, like, a foot away from us,” Nayoung points out. 

“Alright, fine, you don’t have to come inside,” the girl says loudly. She steps out of the house and closes the door securely before approaching them. “Don’t run away. Calm down, guys.”

“I am extremely scared right now,” Yebin says. She flinches when the girl puts a hand on her shoulder. “Oh my god, Nayoung -”

“Be quiet,” the girl tells her. “Close your eyes. Remember.”

And when she says that, Yebin remembers. 

She remembers when she was ten years old and she was sitting on the curb with Yewon while they were waiting for Kyungwon to meet them at the arcade. It was a particularly hot day and both of them had popsicles. Yebin was just about to ask Yewon if she wanted to hear the joke on her popsicle stick when there was a loud crash on the street in front of them. 

A girl, probably their age, was sprawled on the ground, her bike lying a couple feet away from her. She pushed herself up and mumbled about the scrapes on her knees. 

Yebin and Yewon looked at each other before going to help her. 

“Hey,” Yebin said, kneeling down. “Are you okay?” 

The girl looked up at her. “I’m fine.” 

Yebin tilted her head. “Your knees are bleeding,” she pointed out. She opened her backpack and pulled out her first aid kit. “Don’t worry about it. I have bandaids. What’s your name?” 

“Minkyung,” the girl said. 

“Nice to meet you, Minkyung,” Yebin said. “I’m Yebin. Do you live around here?”

“Yeah,” Minkyung says, slowly and carefully. “I guess.”

She remembers when she was fourteen years old and she locked herself in her bathroom. She stood at her sink, scrubbing at her face furiously, trying to wash off the lipstick stains.  _ Freak  _ was dripping down her cheek in dark red blotches. She tossed the wash towel into the bathtub and let out a broken sob. Her hands gripped the side of the sink as she looked at her reflection in the mirror and she didn’t like what she saw. 

_ Freak _ . That’s what they had called her.  _ Pervert. Disgusting. Ugly.  _

She smashed her fist into the mirror and the glass split against her knuckles. Pain bloomed through her fingers and she stumbled back, falling to the floor. 

The door burst open and Minkyung was immediately at her side. 

“Hey,” she said softly. She pushed an inhaler into Yebin’s hands. Yebin held it up to her mouth and pressed the trigger, taking a deep breath. “You’re okay, it’s okay.” 

“No, it’s not!” Yebin tried to push her away but she didn’t budge. “I’m disgusting, I’m horrible, I’m ruining you and Yewon and Kyungwon. I’m sick, I need to -” 

Minkyung grabbed Yebin’s shoulders. “Yebin, this isn’t a sickness. You’re not ruining me or Yewon or Kyungwon, okay? We love you.” 

“You shouldn’t,” Yebin snapped. “I’m a mistake and you shouldn’t be here, you need to leave.” 

“No. I’m not going to leave you. I would never leave you.” Minkyung took Yebin’s face in her hands and kissed her. 

She remembers when she was sixteen and she was lying on the ground in the woods. It was dark and her head was pounding and she could feel her blood rushing in her ears and it hurt everywhere. Her neck felt damp and cold and there was a searing pain just behind her ear. She was pretty sure that she was dead.

“Shh, calm down, baby, you’re alright.” Minkyung’s voice is what pulled her out of her trance. She took in too much air on her first breath and started wheezing but Minkyung was quick to give her her inhaler. “You’re okay. We killed her. We killed her.” 

Yebin coughed and put her inhaler down on the ground beside her. She looked up at Minkyung. “‘Baby,’ huh? Finally ready to admit you love me?” 

Minkyung laughed and Yebin felt her heart swell in her chest. “I admitted that a long time ago.” 

She remembers Kim Minkyung. She remembers loving her. 

She remembers everything. 

In all honesty, Yebin doesn’t know what the fuck is going on. She relayed the story twice to Nayoung, who is still having trouble comprehending it. Yewon slowly started piecing things together when they went into the house and Chan is absolutely clueless. 

Minkyung has definitely spent a lot of time fixing up the house. The floors are relatively clean, considering they’re dirt, and there are a couple chairs and a single table by the window. She even managed to get a couch to push up against a wall. There are flowers in a vase on the table that seem pretty fresh. 

“Why do you guys get to remember?” Nayoung complains. “How come I can’t remember any of this?” 

“You just have to try harder,” Yebin tells her. “Come on. Can't you remember how it started? Kyungwon was sneaking out of her house and you caught us so I made you come along.” 

Nayoung frowns and looks at the table for a bit. “Yeah. I remember that. We went to the woods.” 

“Good! We went to the woods and we found this nasty old cottage,” Yebin continues. “And then Minkyung’s dead brother communicated with us through a big ass ouija board -”

“It was a wall,” Yewon corrects her quietly. 

“It was a ouija board on a wall,” Yebin says, looking at Yewon.

“No, see, you lost me there,” Nayoung says, grimacing. “A ouija wall?” 

“Yeah,” Yebin says. “He sent us lyrics from  _ Africa _ by Toto. It was pretty gay.” 

Nayoung gives Yebin a dry look. “You're pretty gay.” 

Yebin nods and points at her. “You got me there.”

“Wait, I thought that we saved your souls by defeating the mist monster,” Yewon says, frowning. “Why are you still here? Also, who put up your missing person posters?”

“Yeah, please explain,” Chan requests. 

Minkyung looks at them with an unreadable expression on her face. “Okay. Let me break it down for you,” she starts. “The evil spirit that resides in the mist of the forest wasn’t defeated the last time we fought it, we just weakened it. Eunwoo and I weren’t able to leave the forest for a while because its energy was significantly low, so it needed us to stay close to it. The spirit is growing stronger and it’s going to start taking kids again soon. Look, this thing feeds off of fear, sadness, anger, basically all the bad jujus, and one of the worst feelings is having your child taken away from you. I don’t know what it’s going to do once it gets strong enough but I really don’t want to find out.”

“Great,” Yebin says, nodding. “So, Stephen King -”

“I thought I told you to shut up,” Nayoung snaps. 

“I’m serious,” Yebin insists. “Remember what happened in  _ It _ ? A group of loveable misfits - that’s us - walks through some shitty sewers and fights a child-eating clown and fucking, like, bond or whatever the fuck but then they forget. They forget all about the shitty sewers and child-eating clowns and their bond until twenty-seven years later and then two of them die.” 

“I call being one of the kids that doesn’t die,” Yewon says, raising her hand. Nayoung frowns at her and puts her hand down. 

“I’m going to be real honest with you guys,” Chan says, “I am finding this very hard to believe.”

“Not exactly the emotional baggage you thought your girlfriend was hiding from you, huh?” Yebin says, nudging him with her elbow. “This shit is wack, man, but you gotta trust us on this. Something really bad might happen soon.”

“I also still have a lot of questions,” Chan continues. “Like, why did your missing person posters say Roa and not your actual name?”

“The people here are stupid but not mega stupid,” Minkyung replies, shrugging. “The spirit couldn’t run the risk of anyone figuring out what was going on. It fabricated the posters to lure you all back in so it could feed off of your energy, but that obviously didn’t work out so well, because here you are, four years later.”

“Also, is Eunwoo still around?” Yewon asks. “And what happened to Kyungwon, like, is that related to this or was she kidnapped or something?”

“About three weeks ago, she came into the forest to, like, look at plants or something,” Minkyung says. Yebin almost snorts. “Yeah, I know, not like her, but bear with me, I think she was looking for some flowers to take pictures of. She found the house and remembered everything and she tried to help me out. It didn’t go so well and she ended up getting taken by the spirit. She’s still alive, though, I can feel it. The spirit doesn’t have enough energy to kill anyone yet. And Eunwoo -”

The door bursts open. “Any bad bitches in the house?”

“Eunwoo’s still a bitch,” Minkyung mutters.

Eunwoo is standing in the doorway, staring at the group. “I apologize. I didn’t realize we had guests.”

“You stupid bitch!” Yebin exclaims, jumping up. 

“What’s up, whore,” Eunwoo says. They bump fists. “Holy shit, you guys got old.”

“I am gorgeous and in my prime right now,” Nayoung says. 

“Oh, yeah, total MILF material,” Eunwoo replies, winking at her. She looks at Chan. “Uh. What is this?”

Chan raises his hand in greeting. “Hello. I’m Chan.”

“That’s hot. Who do you belong to?” Eunwoo asks. 

“Yewon,” Chan says, pointing at his girlfriend.

“Oh!” Eunwoo’s face brightens up into a grin and she looks at Yewon. “Well, isn’t that sweet! Baby finally found herself a good daddy?”

Yebin climbs over Nayoung to tackle Eunwoo and punch her square in the face while Yewon covers her face with her hands. Minkyung tiredly gets up so she can get Yebin off of Eunwoo. 

“You think that shit’s funny?” Yebin snaps, fighting against Minkyung. “It’s not! It wasn’t funny then, it’s not funny now.” 

“Jesus, it was just a joke,” Eunwoo says, wiping blood from her mouth. “It was kind of funny.”

“Your stupid jokes are what got you in trouble in the first place,” Minkyung says. “Just lay off, alright?”

Eunwoo just shrugs and moves to sit down next to Nayoung. “Whatever. Y’all back here for something? Is it someone’s birthday?”

“They’re here for Kyungwon,” Minkyung tells her. She leans over to Yebin, who is still glaring at Eunwoo. “I swear, it’s like I have a child that I have to take care of, she’s always like this. I am so tired right now.”

Yebin laughs a little. “You’d think dying would make her try to be a better person.”

“It did for, like, a week and then she was back on her old shit,” Minkyung replies. She nudges Yebin and grins. “By the way, I like the fanny pack. It’s very cute.”

 

“What can we do?” Yebin is pacing the small room of the cottage, holding her face with her hands. It’s almost afternoon now, and Chan and Yewon had gone to retrieve lunch from the Grave Digger. “I mean, we already tried to kill it. That didn’t work so well. What else is there that we can do?”

“You don’t have any Stephen King novels for reference here?” Nayoung asks tiredly. She’s lying on the couch with her forearms covering her eyes. “What did the kids in  _ It _ do the second time around?”

“They shot a big ugly bug with a silver bullet, but we don’t even know if they defeated the crazy killer clown anyways,” Yebin replies, throwing her hands up. “How come it didn’t work the first time? Do we try another angle? Remember  _ Poltergeist _ ? They called in a spiritual medium to help them. Do you think that’ll work?”

“It’ll take a long time for a spiritual medium to get here, and I don’t know how much time we’ve got before the spirit is strong enough to fight back,” Minkyung says. “But we can’t just borrow solutions from other problems. This is our problem, we need to come up with our own solution.”

“What if we get a priest to bless the forest? People do that to houses when they think they’re haunted, right?” Yebin suggests. She nudges Nayoung’s legs and sits down beside her on the couch. 

“We’re going to get some guy to bless the entire forest?” Eunwoo scoffs. “This forest occupies, like, the entire state of Maine, dude.”

“We could find wherever the spirit is staying and just cleanse that area,” Nayoung suggests. 

“The spirit isn’t ‘staying’ anywhere. It’s everywhere,” Minkyung says. “It’s ubiquitous.”

“How dare you use a word like that when you know we are all dumbasses here,” Eunwoo says. 

“It means that the spirit is everywhere,” Minkyung tells her. “It doesn’t have a fixed location, it’s like God.”

“Do not compare God to this fucked up frostbite forest spirit lady,” Yebin snaps. “They are not in the same league.”

“Yoohoo.” The door opens and Chan and Yewon enter with takeout bags in their hands. “We come bearing sweet gifts.” 

Yebin jumps to her feet and helps them set everything up on the table. 

“Y’all made any progress?” Yewon asks, looking over at Nayoung, who is slowly sitting up. “Do we know what to do?” 

“I’m in love with your new Southern accent and I would literally do anything to keep you talking,” Yebin tells her. “Other than that, we got nothing.” 

“Shut up,” Yewon replies lightheartedly. “What can we do to figure this out? I mean, I’d like to get it settled before something really bad happens.” 

“I feel like there isn’t much that we can do,” Nayoung admits. “I hate to say it, but we won’t know anything until something happens again.” 

Eunwoo grabs a carton of French fries. “You guys are screwed.”

“This is about you too, shithead,” Yebin snaps. “You’re stuck here until we get rid of this fucking forest demon.”

“Hey, I’m having a good ass time, man,” Eunwoo says. She shoves five fries into her mouth at once. “I don’t mind staying here forever.” 

“You should. You hate this, like, a lot,” Minkyung says. “You say you hate it basically everyday.” 

“I mean, of course I hate it, but not so much that I’m motivated to actually do something about it,” Eunwoo replies. “I’m lazy and I don’t like to think.”

“Yeah, we know that,” Nayoung says drily. 

Yewon pulls a hamburger and fries out of a bag and sits down next to Nayoung. “Well, we could try to figure out what happened to Kyungwon. She’s still alive, so she’s got to be here somewhere.”

“Does the mist monster have some sort of lair?” Chan asks. He looks at Yebin. “Like, you know how in  _ It _ , the clown was in the sewers? Maybe she’s being kept wherever that is.”

“Its lair is the entire forest,” Minkyung says. “There’s really no way to pinpoint where it is at any time unless you get it to deliberately attack you.”

Nayoung raises her eyebrows. “So, we just do that?”

“I don’t like doing that,” Yewon complains. “That was scary.”

“I almost had my soul sucked out of my body the last time we did that,” Yebin adds. “It wasn’t my favorite summer activity.”

“It’s not like we have any other option,” Nayoung says. “And we already know how to get it.”

“We should probably come up with another plan on how to kill it though, because, evidently, it didn’t work the last time you tried,” Chan points out. “Flamethrowers and bear traps are sick but not super efficient.”

“There’s a bible in our hotel room,” Yewon supplies. 

“We are not performing an exorcism on the goddamn forest,” Eunwoo says. 

“I thought you didn’t care,” Yebin says, looking at her pointedly. 

“It’s not like I have a choice in whether or not I’m in on this,” Eunwoo shoots back. “You all can leave whenever you want, I’m stuck here, I should get a vote in whatever the hell it is we do.”

Chan coughs to get their attention. “Only priests approved by the Vatican can perform an exorcism.”

“It would take too long to find a priest who has been approved by the fucking Vatican,” Minkyung says. “And none of us know how to perform an exorcism anyways.”

“We could look it up in, like, the library,” Yebin says. “There’s tons of weird shit on the internet about basically everything in the world.”

Nayoung shakes her head. “I do not trust the internet.”

“Yeah, because the internet is the real evil here,” Yebin drawls. 

“Shut the fuck up,” Nayoung says. 

“Yeah?” Yebin raises her eyebrows. “Make me.”

Nayoung grabs a handful of fries from the table and shoves them into Yebin’s mouth. Eunwoo lets out an incredulous laugh and Minkyung tosses a napkin in their direction. 


	3. It Begins Again

Yebin still doesn’t drive. She has a California driver’s license but she’s not very good at driving and she doesn’t have a car to drive anyways. They’d spent hours in that little house in the forest just talking, trying to figure out what they were going to do, trying to keep Yebin from killing Eunwoo (again). 

It’s getting late but the sun is still pretty high in the sky so it’s not like she’s walking home alone in the dark. Minkyung had offered to walk her home but Yebin just wanted to be alone for a bit. It wasn’t everyday that her undead high school girlfriend that she’d forgotten about for four years randomly comes back into her life so they could finish what they’d started when they were sixteen. It’s a lot to process and she needs a little time. 

She knows where she’s going. She doesn’t really need to look at the street signs and she’s in no rush to get home. She passes the yellow house on Procter Drive that always put a weird paper skeleton in its front window during Halloween. The city college is pretty alive since they offer free classes during the summer. She sees a few people that she recognizes from high school but she doesn’t feel like greeting them. When she crosses the street, she sees a group of kids sitting outside the liquor store and it sort of reminds her of the summers that she would spend with Kyungwon and Yewon and Minkyung, sitting around on the streets, waiting for anything to happen. 

As she nears her street, the houses start to get bigger, the lawns start to get wider. It’s quiet except for the neighborhood-ly sounds of dogs barking and birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind. There’s no one outside, which is odd. There’s usually someone watering their lawn or washing their car or walking their dog, but today, there’s no one. It’s like she’s the only one in the neighborhood.

When she finally gets to her house, the sun is starting to get close to the horizon. She fishes her key out of her fanny pack and opens her door. 

“Mom?” she calls, taking her shoes off. “I’m home.”

She closes and locks the door behind her and slowly walks to the kitchen. All the lights are off, which is pretty normal, since her parents don’t like to use electricity until it’s absolutely necessary. They don’t turn on the lights until the sky gets dark. 

The kitchen smells like vinegar, which also isn’t uncommon, but it’s also empty. There are open containers of kimchi sitting on the counter and a couple flies buzzing around. Yebin turns on the light and glances around. 

“Mom, where are you?” she asks. “I’m going to put the kimchi away.”

The house remains silent and she puts the kimchi in the refrigerator before leaving the kitchen to go to the living room. The TV is off and all of the curtains are open. She closes the curtains and goes into the dining room. 

“Mom!” There’s no response so she goes upstairs. “Where are you?”

The shower in the master bathroom is running but there’s no one in it. Yebin reaches in to turn it off and finds a crumpled up towel on the ground. 

“Are you mad at me or something?” Yebin says, leaving the bathroom. She goes into the guest bedroom. “Mom, come on, I’ll help you make dinner.”

There’s no one in her dad’s office or her own bedroom. She runs back downstairs and grabs the phone off of the wall. 

“Hello?” Nayoung’s voice is like a lifesaver that Yebin clings to. 

“Nayoung, my mom’s not home,” Yebin says quietly. 

She can hear Nayoung sigh. “She is allowed leave the house.”

“No, you don’t understand, there was kimchi left on the counter and the shower was on,” Yebin continues. “She said that she would be making dinner tonight, she said she got beef from the market and she was going to make me a special welcome home dinner, I don’t know why she’s not at home.”

“You’re just scaring yourself. Your mom will be home soon,” Nayoung assures her. “I’ve got to go now.”

Before Yebin can stop her, ask her why she needs to leave, the line goes dead. She hangs the phone back up on the wall and does another round on the bottom floor of her house. Everything is quiet. No one is in the garage, it’s just all the crap that her parents could never get rid of. 

She goes to the front of the house and sits on the front steps. The street lights come on and the sun dips below the horizon. Across the street, the lights turn on and she can see a family watching TV together. 

There’s a noise inside and she hurries back in to find a mess in the living room. She starts panicking and it’s suddenly hard to breathe so she pulls her inhaler out of her pocket, puts it to her mouth, and pushes the trigger. 

Her mom is lying on the kitchen floor, in a pool of her own blood. There’s a large, open wound on her chest and her shirt is soaked. Her eyes are open, staring straight ahead. 

Yebin’s world stops. She can’t breathe, she can’t think, she can’t feel anything. She makes her way to her mother like she’s walking through mud. 

“Mom,” she whispers, kneeling down. “ _ Eomma _ , please, please say something.” 

There’s a sound of the toilet flushing and her mother jerks back to life, grabbing at her with a bloody hand. Yebin screams and falls back and then her mother disappears. There’s no blood on the floor. 

“Yebin, what are you doing on the floor?” Yebin looks up and sees her mom standing in the doorway of the kitchen. She’s wearing a clean blue shirt and she looks mildly concerned. “Get up, the floor is dirty.”

Yebin blinks at her. “Mom, what - Jesus, where have you been?”

“I’ve been in here cooking,” her mom says. “You had fun with your friends?”

“Uh, yeah,” Yebin says. She gets to her feet and watches as her mom check something on the stove. 

She was just scaring herself. She’ll be fine. 

 

“She was dead, she was on my fucking kitchen floor, literally dead,” Yebin says, walking beside Nayoung. “And there was so much blood, there was, like, a pool of blood surrounding her body.” 

“You were just seeing things,” Nayoung says. She opens the door to the library and pushes Yebin in. “Your mom is fine.” 

“I was not just seeing things,” Yebin insists, lowering her voice. “It was real, my mom was gone for hours.”

“You’re just feeling jumpy because of everything that’s going on,” Nayoung tells her. 

“No, it was more than that, I totally think that this is some multiple universes thing going on,” Yebin insists. “Which isn’t actually such a bad theory, I switched places with a different Yebin from a different universe for, like, a good hour!” 

Nayoung’s smile softens. “Okay, well, whichever universe you’re from, I’m glad I got to meet this version of you.” 

Yebin can feel the tips of her ears turn red and she spins away from Nayoung. “Look, Minkyung is already here.” 

Minkyung is standing in the teen romance aisle, idly picking out books and putting them back when they don’t interest her. It suddenly strikes Yebin how much she hasn’t changed. She still has her long brown hair and eyes that turn into crescents when she smiles. Her skin has always been pale and Yebin begins to wonder if it’s because she’s dead. 

On the other hand, both Yebin and Nayoung have drastically changed in the past four years. Nayoung’s dyed her hair a reddish-brown color, wears a newer, brighter windbreaker, and started using more makeup. Yebin traded in her backpack for a fanny pack and began to wear shoes that made her seem taller. They’re both significantly different from the sixteen year old girls they were that one summer in Little Grave Lights. 

Minkyung is the same. She’s still sixteen. She’s been sixteen for thirteen years now. 

“The ghost is fucking with me,” Yebin says, forgoing a greeting. Minkyung turns to her and puts a book back on the shelf. “It’s making me see shit, my mom was dead.”

“I’m sorry,” Minkyung says, and it’s so sincere that Yebin has to take a deep breath. “That’s not uncommon, though. Kyungwon was seeing things when she found me.”

“Please elaborate,” Nayoung requests. 

“We all know how deep rooted she is in this town,” Minkyung begins to explain. “Her family has been here for an absurdly long time and she’s the only one out of the four of you that stayed here. She’s had a weird complex about abandonment for a while.”

Yebin nods. “One time she showed up at my house because she felt like I was forgetting about her. It was very strange.”

“She had an episode, probably like yours, where everyone in town forgot who she was,” Minkyung says. “It spooked her really bad.”

“Damn,” Nayoung mutters. “This thing can get into our heads now?”

Minkyung shrugs. “I told you, it gets its energy from bad feelings. It’s feeding off of your fear.”

“Why does this spirit have to be such a bitch?” Yebin groans, leaning back against the bookshelf. “I am so fucking tired.”

“You’ve been here for a day,” Minkyung says. “You’re not that tired yet.”

“Hey, guys!” Yewon gives Nayoung a quick hug and grins at the rest of them. Chan is standing behind her with a cup of coffee. “I never knew that breakfast at Lightbreak Inn is actually pretty good.”

“Yewon, honey, your standards are so fucking low, you probably like breakfast from McDonald’s,” Yebin says. 

“Those hash browns are fried by the gods,” Yewon says in response. 

“You guys embarrass me,” Nayoung states. 

“You embarrass yourself on your own,” Yebin snaps.

Nayoung frowns at her. “Keep your voice down. Do we need to stop taking you places?”

“Oh my god, do you get off on acting like a mom or something?” Yebin asks. “You’re being such a pain in my ass.” 

“I’m a pain in your ass?” Nayoung scoffs. “Are you serious?” 

“Can you guys shut the fuck up for, like, one second?” Minkyung hisses, glaring at them. “Jesus christ, I forgot how annoying you are.”

Chan takes a sip of his coffee. “So, where are we on our adventure?”

“I vote for figuring out where Kyungwon is,” Yewon says, raising her hand. “I think that’ll be our first clue on how to stop this lady.”

“And how exactly are we supposed to do that?” Yebin asks, not unkindly, because it’s Yewon. “I mean, it’s not like there was a trail of breadcrumbs or anything. The only thing we know that the spirit has some sort of connection to is the house, which Minkyung and Eunwoo turned into a lovely countryside cottage.”

“What if we got one of those ghost hunting gadgets?” Chan suggests. “The EMP reader or something.”

“EMF meter,” Nayoung corrects him. “Where would we even get one of those?” 

“They might have them at that one weirdo hardware store that sells those wacky magnets,” Minkyung says. She gestures with her hands. “The big ones.” 

“We know what hardware store you’re talking about,” Nayoung says. 

Yebin pats Chan on the back. “Then let’s go check it out.” 

They leave the library, to the relief of the seven other people in it, and make their way down the street to the hardware store. 

“We should totally get medium to come out here, though,” Yebin says. “That would be pretty cool, right? They’d be able to tell us what’s going on and shit.” 

“You’re all basically mediums already since you’re walking and talking with a literal dead person,” Minkyung says, motioning at herself. “Besides, we don’t need one. We can handle this on our own.” 

“Yeah, we thought that when we were sixteen, but we were wrong,” Yebin says, shrugging. “It wouldn’t hurt to get extra help.” 

“We just don’t have the time or resources,” Nayoung says. “I mean, where are we supposed to find money to afford that?” 

“Um, I’m mega rich? I’ll just get my parents to pay for it,” Yebin says, as if it was obvious. “I go to USC, man, I can afford anything I want.”

“Just because you can afford it, doesn’t mean you should buy it,” Yewon tells her wisely. 

Yebin looks at her. “Thanks, doc, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Chan opens the door to the hardware store and waits for all the girls to walk in before following them. “I don’t know if a hardware store would have ghost hunting gear.”

“This is a weird hardware store,” Minkyung tells him. “It has a bakery.”

“But don’t buy the bread unless you’re planning on building a house with it,” Yewon adds. “It’s as hard as wood.”

Chan looks perplexed. “Why?”

Yebin makes an “I don’t know” sound. “Come on, we should ask the guy if they have any.” 

There’s a very bored looking man behind the cash register reading a magazine when they approach. 

“Can I help you?” he asks. 

“Do you guys have electromagnetic field meters here?” Nayoung asks flatly. 

The clerk raises his eyebrows. “You want a ghost detector?” 

“Yeah, my friends are dumbasses, can you help us out?” Nayoung says. 

“Nah, we don’t have those here,” the clerk tells them. “They have those at the visitor center though. Little fake ones that kind of beep at anything.” 

Minkyung sighs and thanks the clerk before leading the group out of the store. “That was a bust.” 

“What if the ones at the visitor center are real, though?” Yewon says. 

“We could bring them to Kyungwon’s house and finally find out if there was a ghost there in April of 1998,” Yebin snorts. 

“There was,” Yewon states confidently. “It was real.” 

Yebin tilts her head. “Was it?” 

“Yes!” Yewon exclaims, pushing Yebin’s shoulder. Yebin just cackles and Yewon rolls her eyes. “Anyways, we should get a fake EMF meter just in case.” 

“Why would we get it if it’s fake?” Minkyung counters. “That’s just a waste of money.”

“Yebin can afford it,” Nayoung says dryly. 

“And I can always buff it up if it doesn’t work,” Yebin says. “I’m an engineer.” 

“You’re an engineer?” Minkyung asks, looking mildly surprised, almost in disbelief. “Since when?” 

“Since I made the worst decision of my life and became an engineering major,” Yebin says. 

“Biomedical engineering,” Nayoung points out. “That’s not really what you need to build ghost hunting gear.” 

“Engineering is engineering,” Yebin says. “Either way, I know which wires to put where.”

“Yeah, you sure know which buttons to push,” Nayoung scoffs.

“You guys have a visitor center?” Chan asks before Yebin can respond. 

 

“Maybe we should get a hiking guide while we’re here,” Yebin says, spinning a carousel around. Minkyung is standing next to her looking at some magnets and Chan and Yewon are trying on sunglasses a couple feet away. Nayoung is talking to the person at the information desk about something. “Oh, I should send a postcard to my roommate back in LA. He’s never been to Maine before.”

“So, you like it in Los Angeles?” Minkyung asks quietly. 

Yebin sighs and hooks her fingers onto the carousel to get it to stop spinning. “That’s a loaded question.” 

“It’s not, I’m just asking,” Minkyung says, holding her hands up innocently. 

“You wanna know if I like my life better without you,” Yebin says. “I can’t give you an answer so easily. I can tell you all of the pros and cons, but it’s not like a list of a bunch of dumb shit can determine how much I’ve missed you.”

“You didn’t miss me at all, you didn’t remember who I was until yesterday,” Minkyung says, like that proves something. 

“You think I didn’t miss you?” Yebin says. “You think I didn’t spend the last four years of my life with this gaping fucking hole inside of me? I kept one of your missing persons posters, I took it with me to college, it’s on my fucking bedroom wall, man. Now, look, I can’t speak for Nayoung or Yewon or Kyungwon, but I missed the shit out of you. I missed you so much that I dreamt about you every night, do you know how pathetic that makes me seem? You were the one person in my life who made me feel like I was complete and then you were gone, you think that I was suddenly just okay after that?”

Minkyung looks down at her feet and then back up at Yebin. “If you missed me so much, why didn’t you ever come looking for me? I was here the whole time.”

“You wanna pull that shit on me?” Yebin says. She takes a step closer. “Your brother died and you didn’t do anything about it for nine years.”

“That’s not fair,” Minkyung says. 

“Oh, it’s not?” Yebin says. “You think any of us would be here right now if it weren’t for you and your stupid fucking brother? You’re the one that dragged us all into this, you manipulated three little girls and you projected your weird ass guilt onto us, and now Eunwoo is dead and Kyungwon is missing.”

“I didn’t mean to -”

“Jesus, Minkyung, we’re not sixteen anymore,” Yebin snaps, throwing her hands in the air. “Okay, you want my help, I’m here, but I’m not gonna take shit from some kid who can’t keep their friends alive.”

Minkyung straightens her back and she’s still five inches taller than Yebin. “I take it you’re liking Los Angeles, then.” 

“Yeah, I fucking love it,” Yebin says curtly. “I’m gonna buy a postcard. Do you want me to get you anything?”

“Oh, uh.” Minkyung blinks at Yebin and then at the magnets she’s standing next to. “No, thank you.”

Yebin grabs a postcard that has a picture of Lightbreak Bridge and goes to join Nayoung at the information desk. 

“Everything alright?” Nayoung asks. She glances over Yebin at Minkyung, who busied herself with looking at sweatshirts. “Sounded like something was happening over there.”

“It’s fine, Mom, thanks for asking,” Yebin drawls and she slaps a five dollar bill on the counter. “I’m taking a postcard. Keep the change.”

“Postcards are ninety-nine cents each so you can grab a couple more if you want,” the concierge tells her. 

Yebin looks at Nayoung. “You wanna send something to your honey at Penn State?”

“I don’t have a honey at Penn State,” Nayoung says. “Why would you even phrase it like that, are you from the fifties?”

“I was just wondering,” Yebin says, shrugging. 

Nayoung rolls her eyes. “Come on, what’s up? Did Minkyung get mad at you or something?”

“It’s fine,” Yebin repeats. “I’m a big girl now, you don’t have to take care of all of my messes for me.”

“Yeah, okay,” Nayoung says. “We might lose her again really soon and you’ll regret it if you left things unsaid.”

“Thanks, doc, I’ll keep that in mind,” Yebin drawls. 

“I’m being serious,” Nayoung says.

Yebin just lets out a short laugh. “It’ll be fine, dude. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Do either of you guys have water?” Yewon asks, coming up behind Yebin, who pulls a small water bottle out of her fanny pack and hands it to her. “Oh. Thanks, man.”

She inspects the bottle before taking a drink from it. 

“I just think that you’ll feel a lot better if you tie up your loose ends,” Nayoung continues. Chan smashes the water bottle into Yewon’s face and half of the water spills out onto her shirt. “Get yourself some closure.”

“There are no ‘loose ends’ to tie up,” Yebin counters and Yewon squeezes the bottle in Chan’s direction, squirting water all over her boyfriend. “Besides, she’s already dead. It’s not like there’s anything any of us can do to make that better.”

“Then don’t do it for her, do it for you,” Nayoung says. Chan shakes his head, spraying water onto Yewon. 

Minkyung appears and grabs Yewon’s wrist before she can dump all of the water onto Chan. “I got the EMF meter. Let’s go.”

They’re herded out of the visitor center like children and Yewon wrings out her shirt in an attempt to dry it out. 

“How did you buy the thing?” Chan asks Minkyung. “Where do you get money?”

Minkyung hesitates to answer. 

“Yo, that’s true, actually,” Yebin pipes up. “You paid for me so many times, where did that money come from?”

“That’s not important,” Minkyung says sharply. “Can we just get to the forest?”

“I kind of want to change,” Yewon states. “He made my shirt wet.”

“How are we somehow less organized than we were four years ago?” Nayoung mutters. 

  
  



	4. Movin' Right Along

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehe :3

Yebin holds up the dinky little EMF meter like it’s a beacon. “I feel like this is highly inaccurate.”

Eunwoo is trudging behind her with a milkshake from the Grave Digger in her hand. The rest of the gang is back in the cottage, waiting for them to find something. 

“Yeah, I mean, I’m a literal ghost and it had no reaction to me,” she says. “Why did you even buy it?”

“We’re dumbasses,” Yebin says. “And you’re not a ghost. You’re just dead.”

“Thank you for the clarification, it makes absolutely zero sense,” Eunwoo drawls. She takes a sip of her milkshake. “What are you expecting to find anyways? You don’t need some fancy ghost hunting shit to know that there’s something spooky going on in this forest.”

“Kyungwon is alive. We just want to find her,” Yebin tells her. “I don’t expect you to understand because the concept of friendship is too complex for your miniscule brain to comprehend.”

Eunwoo shrugs. “Yeah. That’s true. Hey, segue, you been getting any ass since you left?”

“That is so not your business,” Yebin says, glancing over her shoulder with a glare. “But I don’t have anyone in California, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No one in California?” Eunwoo continues poking. “You got a chick in another state?”

“I haven’t dated since Nayoung,” Yebin snaps. 

Eunwoo blinks slowly. “Hold up, put that thing down, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Repeat that for me.”

“No,” Yebin says, refusing to obey Eunwoo’s requests. “I don’t need to tell you anything and you don’t even have to be here.”

“You dated Nayoung?” Eunwoo asks incredulously. “When? Why?”

“I’m not talking about this, especially not with you,” Yebin points out. “Why are you so interested anyways? You used to bully me about this.”

“First of all, I’m bored,” Eunwoo explains, moving to walk next to Yebin. “And I’ve spent the last four years with Captain Lesbo in there, so the whole ‘gay’ thing? I couldn’t care less. Also, I’m dead. I don’t really give a shit about anything anymore. Why’d you date Nayoung, and why did you break up with her?”

“I did not come here to have some introspective conversation with my high school tormentor,” Yebin says. 

“Well, duh, it’s not like I want to be here either,” Eunwoo scoffs. “But this nasty ass energy you’ve got going on is not helping this situation at all. If you want to help your friends and rid the woods of this crazy spirit thing, you gotta clear that up.”

“I literally have no idea what that means,” Yebin mutters. 

“You have no idea what you’re doing,” Eunwoo tells her, and she reaches out to tap Yebin’s chest, right above her heart. “Emotionally.” 

Yebin sputters out in protest. “Excuse me? I am in touch with all of my emotions, I’ve cleared all my chakras -”

“If you had cleared all of your chakras, you wouldn’t be flip flopping like a fish out of water over here,” Eunwoo says. “You need to talk to someone.”

“I don’t want to talk,” Yebin states. 

“Everyone wants to talk,” Eunwoo says. 

“Just leave me the fuck alone.”

Before Eunwoo can respond, the EMF meter starts beeping and they both go quiet. Yebin lowers the device so she can look at it and spins in a slow circle to try to see where the signal is coming from. 

She starts walking forward and Eunwoo squeaks. “Don’t walk towards the demon!”

“It’s not a demon,” Yebin hisses back. She turns around and starts walking back towards Eunwoo. “I was walking the wrong way.”

Eunwoo pouts and backs up. She’d barely taken two steps before she plummets through the ground cover and disappears. 

“Oh, holy shit!” Yebin runs forward and falls to her knees. “Where’d you go?”

A tiny hand pokes up and Yebin helps to clear the plants out of the way.

“Why the fuck is there a huge ass hole here?” Eunwoo screams, spitting dirt out of her mouth. 

Yebin leans back on her heels and laughs out of relief. “I thought you died again.”

“I wish I fucking did!” Eunwoo snaps. “Help me out of here!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Yebin reaches down to grab Eunwoo’s hands and tries to pull her out. “Christ, dude, you’re dead, why do you weigh so much?”

“Fuck you,” Eunwoo bites back. Her foot catches on something and she goes tumbling backwards, this time bringing Yebin with her. 

They land unceremoniously in the hole that seems to keep getting bigger. 

Yebin pushes herself to her feet. “What the hell, man?”

“It’s not my fault you’re fucking weak!” Eunwoo yells. 

“I am not weak,” Yebin states. 

The dirt that had come undone when Eunwoo was trying to climb out suddenly comes tumbling down towards them and Yebin shrieks, scrambling to move behind Eunwoo. A decaying human body rolls out and drops at their feet. 

“Oh my god!” Yebin screams, backing up to the end of the hole and pressing her back against the dirt. “What the fuck? What the fuck is going on?”

“Why the hell would I know?” Eunwoo screams back. “Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up.”

“Oh my god!” Yebin cries, shaking her hands like it’ll help her be rid of what’s going on. “We need to get out of here, I have to get out of here!”

“Oh my god.” They sound like parrots chirping phrases back at each other. “Are you about to have one of your asthma things?” 

“I don’t know, maybe! I can’t breathe, oh my god.” 

“How - do you have your little thingie?” Eunwoo asks, growing more stressed. Her hands hover over Yebin’s shoulders, scared that she’ll make it worse if she touches her. “Oh my god, what can I do to help you?” 

Yebin fumbles to pull her inhaler out of her fanny pack, presses it to her mouth, and pushes the trigger. She leans back against the dirt wall and takes in deep breaths, holding a hand against her chest. 

“Are you - are you okay?” Eunwoo asks carefully. “Are you good now?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Yebin says. She pockets her inhaler and looks up. “Okay. We need to get out of here, we have to get out of here, I cannot be near that thing.” 

“What, you think I wanna be near that thing?” Eunwoo asks incredulously. 

“I don’t fucking know, you’re dead, that’s dead,” Yebin says. “What do you care?”

“Contrary to popular belief, not all dead people are friends,” Eunwoo says. She reaches her foot out to poke at the dead body. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“We’re too far away from the cottage for them to hear us,” Yebin says. “Oh my god, we’re gonna die in here.” 

“I’m already dead,” Eunwoo points out. “You’re gonna die.” 

“What the fuck -” Yebin screams and grabs Eunwoo when another voice joins their conversation. They both look up to see the one person they were sure they weren’t going to see. She’s tall and tan, her hair falling just below her shoulders, and she’s crouching at the edge of the hole, glaring down at them. “- do you think you’re doing?”

  
  



	5. The Poisoned Youth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here u go thanks for waiting  
> I know I left y'all on kind of a cliffhanger so here's a little piece to tide you over until I get more finished

Kyungwon is tired. That’s really all there is to it. 

Let’s take it back to May of 2002 for a moment. Kyungwon is twenty years old. She works as a bartender at Brewport and she still lives with her parents and a dog named Kongie that they adopted about a year ago. She’s got a few friends that she sees consistently. Life is fine. It’s not great but it’s not bad. 

It’s fine. 

Kyungwon has an aunt that lives in New York City who is an artist that asked her to take pictures of wildlife for reference. She has nothing else to do, so she takes her Casio Exilim and goes into the woods. It’s spring, so the woods are actually quite pretty when the sun is out. She knows that there are prettier flowers near the coast but there’s no way she’s driving out to Portland just to take a picture of a purple flower that her aunt could find in a book. 

She’s been walking through the woods for about fifteen minutes when she sees a gross, molding cottage and she thinks ‘hey, I should go check that out.’ So she does. 

As soon as she opens the door, there is a knife against her throat and she realizes that this may have been a bad idea but she can’t back out now. 

“Oh, shit!” The knife disappears and she’s stuck staring at a girl who is painfully familiar but is a complete stranger at the same time. “Kyungwon?”

Kyungwon narrows her eyes at the girl. “Yes?”

The girl lets out a short laugh. “It’s me, it’s Minkyung! Do you remember me?”

Kyungwon does. She remembers the wild summer that she spent running through the forest, blowing fire at ghosts and she remembers her promise to never forget it. 

She tries to help Minkyung, she honestly does, but there isn’t much that she can do and it really sucks to have to do this alone. 

It’s three days later that she’s dragging herself up a hiking trail, in pursuit of the place where Minkyung and her brother were killed. There are a lot of camping grounds in the forest and there are also a lot of people who will just pitch a tent and sleep wherever there’s a flat patch of land, so it’s been a long morning of following Minkyung around. 

They get to a clearing that Minkyung just sort of stands in for a while and then the rest is a blur for Kyungwon. The evil spirit (maybe?) shows up and they fight a bit and then nothing. For weeks, there was nothing. 

And now she’s looking down into a hole inhabited by a dead body, a high school bully who never grew up, and the girl she’d spent half of her life protecting. 

“Kyungwon, oh my god!” Yebin exclaims, her face brightening with a smile. “Fuck, man, you have no idea how good it is to see your face!”

“Why are you in a hole?” Kyungwon asks flatly. 

“That’s my bad, I fell in it,” Eunwoo answers, raising her hand. Kyungwon squints at her. “Hi. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Can you help us get out of here please?” Yebin says. 

Kyungwon looks down at her own arms and then back at Yebin. “I don’t know how.”

Eunwoo leans back to whisper to Yebin. “There is something wrong with her.”

“No shit, man,” Yebin whispers back. 

“Hey, are you dead?” Eunwoo asks. “Like how I’m dead? Is that what happened to you?”

“No.” Kyungwon shakes her head. “I’m not dead.”

“That’s good,” Yebin says quickly. She reaches a hand up. “Take my hand and try to pull me up.”

Kyungwon does as she’s told and, with a lot of struggling, they manage to get Yebin back up onto the higher ground. They then turn to pull Eunwoo up together and just stand there looking at each other for a while. 

“So, what have you been up do?” Yebin asks carefully.

Kyungwon seems to think about it before answering. “I don’t know. Bad things, I think.”

“Oh, I don’t like that,” Eunwoo says. “I don’t like how she said that.”

“You don’t know?” Yebin asks Kyungwon, frowning. “You don’t know what you’ve been doing for the past two weeks?”

“I think I’ve been doing bad things,” Kyungwon repeats. “But it wasn’t me.”

“Oh, God, no.” Eunwoo starts stomping away and Yebin reaches back to grab her arm. “She is messed up, I’m going to get Minkyung.” 

“You can’t leave me alone with her,” Yebin hisses. “Dude, what if she starts doing more bad things?”

“I won’t hurt you,” Kyungwon says, like she’s never been more sure of anything in her life. “I promise, I’m more scared than you are.”

Eunwoo and Yebin look at each other, conveying that they’re both much more scared than Kyungwon seems to be. 

“Hurry,” Yebin whispers, squeezing Eunwoo’s hand. 

“Don’t die,” Eunwoo replies, and she runs back in the direction of the cottage. 

Yebin fidgets with the hem of her shirt before looking up at Kyungwon. “So. Did you miss me?”

“A little,” Kyungwon says. She tilts her head and squints. “There’s not much of you to miss.” 

“Wow, super funny.” Yebin laughs but it falls short when she realizes that Kyungwon is still just staring at her. She reaches out to brush some stray hair out of Kyungwon’s face and Kyungwon flinches like she’s been shocked. “Shit, man, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Kyungwon says. 

Yebin sighs and brings her hands back to her sides, unsure about what she’s supposed to do with them. She can’t remember the last time that she’d seen Kyungwon go this long without smiling and it scares her. 

“Jesus, Kyungwon,” she says quietly. “What happened to you?”

Kyungwon isn’t given an opportunity to respond because the rest of the gang suddenly surrounds them. 

Minkyung is ecstatic, almost crying, as she pushes through to reach for Kyungwon. “God, I’m so happy you’re okay, I’ve been so worried about you, I shouldn’t have brought you into this on your own, we should have waited for everyone else to come, I’m so sorry -”

Kyungwon’s hand whips out and grabs Minkyung’s wrist, effectively keeping her from touching her. Everyone goes silent as Kyungwon slowly pushes Minkyung away and lets go of her wrist. 

Minkyung takes a couple steps back and lets Nayoung wrap an arm around her shoulders, dumbstruck by what just happened. Kyungwon has never passed up an opportunity to hug her friends. 

“Um, Kyungwon,” Yebin says awkwardly. “Why don’t you say hi to Yewon?”

“Hi,” Yewon says, taking a step forward. Kyungwon doesn’t respond over just staring so she tries a smile. “Um, I know it’s been a while, it’s great to see you again. How are you?”

Kyungwon looks at her cautiously. “I’m fine.”

Yebin looks at Minkyung, as if to ask what the hell is going on, and Minkyung shrugs, making an ‘I don’t know’ sound. 

“Hey, your family is pretty worried about you, what do you say we take you back home?” Nayoung suggests.

“Home?” Kyungwon asks. 

_ Pet Sematary _ , Yebin mouths to Minkyung, who rolls her eyes and shakes her head. 

“Yeah, your house,” Nayoung says. “Can we take you there?”

Kyungwon furrows her brow, obviously thinking very hard about it and Yebin shuffles over to whisper with Minkyung and Eunwoo. 

“Okay,” Kyungwon says. “Take me home.”

 

It’s an emotional homecoming. Kyungwon cries a little and her mom cries and Yebin cries, but then again, Yebin cries a lot anyways. Yebin also decides to stay with them for a while because “what if she goes feral and tries to kill her family, there is something so wrong with her”, and Yewon and Chan go to get dinner at the Gravedigger. They invite Nayoung, but she declines, since she would just be a third wheel. 

So she drives aimlessly around town without a specific destination. Little Grave Lights is a quaint little place. There’s a section full of beautiful old Victorian style houses and a few barns near the outside of town. There are three farms that supply the town with most of its produce that she hears most kids go on field trips to in elementary school, but she never did, since she didn’t come to town until high school. 

The town is somewhat alive. It’s a Friday evening during the summer, so there are teenagers hanging out in vacant parking lots, smoking cheap cigarettes and drinking dollar store beer that an older brother bought for them. Old people are going on their evening walks, some of them with a dog, some of them with a young grandchild. There are kids biking home from the public pool, young families or couples going to either of the two “fancy” restaurants in town for dinner - an Italian place called Lovino’s and a ramen shop called Kiraku. 

She’s coming near Lightbreak Bridge when she sees a teenage boy slowly walking along the side of the road. It’s not super weird, since pretty much everything that happens in this town is fucking weird, but it’s odd enough to make her wary. As she gets closer to him, she notices that he’s covered in dirt, and there are leaves and sticks poking out of his hair. She pulls over behind him and sits there, watching him inch towards the bridge for while. 

“Fuck it.” She gets out of her car and walks toward him. “Hey, kid, is everything alright?” 

The boy stops walking and takes a while to turn around to face her. His face is a sickly grayish color and his eyes are so sunken in that it almost looks like he doesn’t have any. It takes a couple seconds, but she recognizes him. 

“Oh my god, Seungcheol,” she breathes out, taking another step forward. He doesn’t say anything and she isn’t sure what she’s supposed to do. “What are you doing? How did you get here?” 

Seungcheol remains silent, just staring at her. They’d known each other in high school the way that you’d know the people who live down the hall from you. He was one of the first people she met when she moved to Little Grave Lights back in 1998. They shared the same first period precalculus honors class and he’d taken it upon himself to sit right next to her and talk to her for the full forty minutes. He was definitely very cute, with sparkly eyes and deep dimples, but he was mean as hell, and he was very self aware about it. 

When he died, there wasn’t much time to dwell on it. She had other things going on that she had to worry about. It was sad, because she knew him, but not very sad, because she didn’t like him that much. 

It’s jarring to have this much of the past jump out at her at once. First, Minkyung, the girl she’d known for two weeks before almost dying together, then Eunwoo, a bratty little girl who will never be able to change, and now Seungcheol, the boy she knew, but only barely, who had seemed like a constant, until he wasn’t. 

There’s a sound behind her and she spins around to see more kids climbing up the hill that leads to the railing on the bridge. They’re all in the same state that Seungcheol is, dirty and broken. She recognizes a few of them - Vernon, who had died with Seungcheol and Eunwoo, Luke and Karisa Massie, the kids who’d gone missing not long before she moved into town, and Mingyu, Minkyung's brother, tall and handsome as ever. 

There are dozens of them, and she remembers sifting through newspaper clippings and police reports in the library, looking through all the missing kids. 

It takes too long for her to snap out of her head, get back in her car, and drive away as quickly as she can. 

  
  



	6. Teenagers Scare the Living Shit Out of Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait and I'm so sorry that this is so short, but I'm like. at a road block rn so I wanted to give y'all something to tide you over until I can get more finished :(

Nayoung has been sitting in her room in Lightbreak Inn for about twenty-seven minutes when there’s a long string of staccato knocks on her door. She opens the door to see Yewon and Chan standing in the hallway, Yewon’s fist raised midair to keep knocking on the door. Chan holds up a bag of donut holes he got from the lobby. 

“Is there something I can do for you two?” Nayoung asks. 

“Didn’t Yebin call you?” Yewon says, bouncing from foot to foot. “She’s got news, she wants us all to meet in the alley behind Brewport.”

“It’s always the alley behind Brewport,” Nayoung sighs. She holds out a hand and Chan gives her a donut hole. “I need to get changed, you guys can head down without me.”

“Oh, you’re actually our ride,” Yewon tells her as she closes the door. Nayoung turns around and moves to root through her luggage. “We’ll wait for you by your car.” 

Nayoung pulls on a clean shirt and shorts and shoves her sneakers on before heading into the bathroom. She doesn’t really wear makeup but her roommate at Penn State had convinced her to start wearing minimal foundation and concealer during their first year, so that’s what she does. She isn’t exactly sure how one is supposed to apply makeup, so she sort of just rubs it all over her face, squints at herself in the mirror, and calls it a day. 

Yewon and Chan are just outside the lobby poking at a muskrat with a stick when she gets to them. 

“Hey, um, you shouldn’t mess with those things,” Nayoung says, grabbing their attention. “It could really hurt you if it gets upset.”

“We were just looking at it,” Chan says, dropping the stick. “Ready to go?” 

The drive to Brewport is short and quiet and Nayoung finds a space in the public parking area before they go around to the alley in the back. Yebin, Kyungwon, and Minkyung are already there, lounging on the beach chairs set up for the employees of Brewport when they take their breaks. 

“Hey, girl, you look good this morning,” Yewon says awkwardly to Kyungwon, who just stares back at her. “Uh, we brought donut holes.”

Minkyung snaps and holds her hand out and Chan gives her a donut hole. “Alright, gang. We got a lot going on for us today. You’re not going to believe what happened this morning.” 

“Okay, you do this thing where you’re super dramatic and tell us some long ass, really hard to believe story, and I love it, but it would be nice if you could cut to the chase because we’re short on time,” Yebin says. “I still don’t understand why you couldn’t have told us before they got here.”

“Bodies of the missing kids have been popping up all over town,” Minkyung says. She pulls a newspaper out of her backpack and holds it out. “There are, like, twenty-six or something, they had to reprint the paper this morning.”

“Are you serious?” Nayoung snatches the paper from Minkyung. “No way. No fucking way, I saw these kids yesterday.”

“What are you talking about? They’ve all been dead for years,” Yewon says. 

“Okay, so we all remember Yebin’s melt down where her mom died? I had something like that happen to me yesterday,” Nayoung says and Yebin sticks her tongue out at her. “I was just driving around, having a good time, and right before Lightbreak Bridge, there was just a mass of undead kids. Seungcheol, Vernon, the Massie kids, I saw them climbing over the railing.” 

“Zombies,” Yebin blurts. “ _ Night of the Living Dead _ . Stephen King has yet to write a book about zombies yet, but I mean, I don’t have time to wait for him to have a horrible car crash outside my house so I can hold him hostage and force him to write one.” 

“Dude, please shut up,” Yewon begs, looking at Yebin. “Please.” 

“Why would she bring all these bodies back?” Chan asks. “Isn’t the point that the families don’t get closure?”

“She’s trying to get her power back, so bringing up the dead bodies will bring up a lot of bad energy from the past,” Minkyung says. “And it’s a lot, obviously.” 

“Where - how are people finding them?” Yebin asks. “Like, is it meaningful or just random? Do they know where the bodies are coming from” 

Minkyung shrugs. “All it says is that they’ve found bodies, there’s no other information, but we can’t go back to the woods, it’s crawling with police.” 

“What about Eunwoo?” Nayoung asks. 

“I hid her in the library,” Minkyung says. “She’s having a bad day.” 

“We’re all having a fucking bad day,” Yebin points out. She looks over her shoulder at Kyungwon, who has been silently watching the conversation the whole time. “Look, we should go before someone comes out here. We can hang out at my house.” 

“I’ll get Eunwoo and meet you there,” Minkyung says, and she jogs away down the alley. 

Yebin nods and gives Nayoung a look before grabbing Kyungwon’s arm and tugging her in the other direction. 

“I guess we should go then?” Chan says. 

Yewon loops her arm through his and they walk back around Brewport. “God, what are we supposed to do?” 

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do, to be honest,” Nayoung says. “This forest thing, it’s been here for centuries, we can’t just make it go away.” 

Yewon is about to respond when someone calls her name and they all turn around to see a police officer walking towards them with a big smile on his face. 

“I didn’t know you were in town,” he says. 

“Tony, hi,” Yewon replies. “We just came back for Kyungwon.” 

“Oh, yeah, I heard you found her,” Tony says. “Did she say where she’s been for the past few weeks?” 

“No, she’s still a little shaken, I think,” Yewon says shortly. They all stand there staring at each other for a while before Yewon clears her throat and pats Chan’s arm. “Tony, this is my boyfriend, Chan.” 

“Hey, nice to meet you,” Tony says, holding a hand out, and Chan shakes it. “Tony Prokopenko. Yewon and I were friends in high school.”

Nayoung remembers Tony but very vaguely. He’s a sweet, soft kid, a cookie cutter small town boy who grew up to be a cop just like his dad.

“We heard about all the bodies popping up,” Yewon says conversationally. “Are you working on that?” 

“Yep, it’s all hands on deck, they are everywhere,” Tony replies. “We just got a call from Grayson, he found a body in his pigpen, that’s our thirty-second this morning.” 

“Sounds horrible,” Chan deadpans. 

Tony looks at him and nods. “Yeah, it is.”

“Where do you think they’re coming from?” Yewon asks. 

“No idea,” Tony admits. “We’re trying to piece together how all of them were connected, if they were at all.” 

“They all went missing in the fucking woods, that’s how they’re connected,” Nayoung says. 

“Well, yeah, but why?” Tony says. “Kids go into the woods everyday, but these ones didn’t come out.” 

“Serial killer?” Chan suggests. 

“Nah, these kids go back longer than anyone should be alive,” Tony says. “Hey, you know, we actually found Vernon and Eunwoo.” 

Yewon and Nayoung look at each other and Nayoung can see Yewon’s face pale. 

“Where?” she asks. 

“Up at the drop off, a couple teenagers found them,” Tony tells her. “It’s insane, none of the bodies have decomposed, it’s like they’ve only been dead for days.” 

“That’s wacky, we should go,” Nayoung says, tugging on Yewon’s sleeve. “It was nice seeing you.” 

“Yeah, we should meet up before you guys leave, catch up over dinner or something,” Tony says. 

Yewon nods but doesn’t mean it. “Okay. Bye, Tony.” 

Nayoung pulls Chan and Yewon to her car, leaving Tony in front of Brewport by himself. 

“Who the fuck is Tony?” Chan says as soon as they’re in the car. 

“I never told you about the girls I spent my entire life with, why the heck would I tell you about some random guy I hung out with because I was afraid to hurt his feelings?” Yewon scoffs. Chan buffs and crosses his arms and she rolls her eyes. “What, are you going to get pissed every time we run into someone I knew in high school?” 

“I’m not pissed!” Chan says. 

Nayoung sighs and turns on the car radio to tune them out. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> visit me on Tumblr @yuhaholic


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